Aid workers in Pakistan have called for an urgent increase in the number of safe shelters available to the growing number of women who are victims of domestic violence.

Three times he told me he was divorcing me. Then he took a knife and cut off the end of my nose and all my hair.

Tehmima

Human rights workers says each year large numbers of women are beaten, tortured or burnt by their husbands or families, and they have few places to escape to.

Some have had their bones broken or their faces mutilated.

Seventeen-year-old Tehmina was married off to a businessman four times her age. She never considered leaving him despite the regular beatings.

But one day he went much further - when the whole family was out, he locked her in the bedroom. Tehmina says she was tied by her hands and feet to a bed while her husband announced three times he was divorcing her.

"Then he took a knife and cut off the end of my nose and all my hair."

Making choices

Tehmina is now at a shelter in Islamabad receiving medical treatment while her husband is in prison.

Horiffic injuries are sometimes inflicted

Aid workers say many women remain in violent relationships because they believe they must obey their husbands and that divorce is a disgrace.

A third of women in Pakistan are illiterate and have little concept about making their own choices.